Post navigation

Casino Revenue Up Slightly

BERLIN — January’s numbers for the Casino at Ocean Downs were released this week, providing the first real look at figures for the same month since the facility opened last January.

The Casino at Ocean Downs generated around $3.13 million in January 2012, up from the $3 million recorded during the same month last year, its first month in operation. However, it’s important to note the casino officially opened for business on Jan. 4, 2011, meaning last month’s numbers don’t accurately reflect an apples to apples comparison.

If nothing else, the Casino at Ocean Downs has been remarkably consistent since opening 13 months ago. With the exception of a couple of months during the height of the summer season, when hundreds of thousands of visitors poured into the nearby resort areas and created a spike on the bottom line, the other nine or 10 months were essentially flat-lined.

The Casino at Ocean Downs generated $3 million in its first year of existence last January, $3.1 million in February, $3.2 million in March, $3.5 million in April, $3.7 million in May and $3.8 million in June. In July, the figure spiked up to $5.3 million, then dropped back down to $4.6 million in August, a decline largely blamed on losing an entire weekend to Hurricane Irene.

In September, the revenue figure held steady at around $4.6 million before nestling back around the $3 million mark for the last three months of 2011. For the first month of 2012, the casino produced $3.13 million in gross revenue, following a pattern that appears to be establishing for the offseason months in the area.

A look at the average daily gross per machine follows a similar pattern. The Casino at Ocean Downs averaged $126.34 per machine during January 2012, down from the $144.54 average during its first month of operation in January 2011. Again, it’s important to note the casino opened with 750 machines last January and that number was bumped up to 800 last summer. However, the $126.34 per machine average for January 2012 is the lowest per month total in the brief history of the facility. In the peak month of July, the average daily gross per machine came in at $215,46, obviously the highest month thus far.

At $3.13 million in gross revenue for January 2012, the Casino at Ocean Downs contributed $1.5 million to the state’s Education Trust Fund for the month, along with a $1 million casino share and another $172,326 in local impact grants. For the fiscal year-to-date dating back to last July 1, the casino has contributed $13.4 million to the Education Trust Fund and $1.5 million in local impact grants.